Category: Humor

Humor, Linkstorm, Weekend

Friday Links (Every Day I’m Hustlin’ Edition)

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
― Confucius

I have neglected you. In my defense I have been editing/tweaking website copy, knocking together an article for a Hawaiian magazine, and creating blogs and posts for DC startups. I’m literally working one end of the country to the other! That and the cold that plagued me for all of April decided to make a return visit, much to my irritation. Here are your links, tell me what you’re up to this weekend!

champagne
In honor of both Friday and that Jazz Age movie, you may have heard of it, that I can’t decide if I want to see in theatres or not.

 

Loved this short article from Elle. I’ve been thinking a lot about clothes the past year. We’ve invested in building Jeff’s new work wardrobe and I’ve been paring mine down to get rid of old, worn, or out of date pieces. I read a book that really made me rethink my clothing choices and have since been looking to build a wardrobe of high quality clothing that will last long, wear well, and age appropriately – which feels ridiculously difficult in an age of fast fashion to start, compounded by the fact that at my heart I am a jeans and t-shirts kind of girl. I’ve fought it, but there it is. I can do that or a little black dress, but precious little in between with aplomb. It’s a work in process.

…I’m listening…

It may be the packing, storing, shifting, and donating – it could definitely be the nearer and nearer move – but whatever the reason, I’ve got decor on the brain. And assuming that all of our funds will go to rent itself, decorating will probably have to be all imaginary, alas, and we’ll use crates for furniture. Which is where cute pieces like this come in.

This pinterest board exists. You’re welcome.

This week I used coding for the first time for a freelance project. It was laughably simple and small but boy I felt my face light up as it made sense. Then I read this article and tumbled straight back down a well of inadequacy.

Fascinating.

Indiana Jones meets the Wind in the Willows. I know everyone knows them as pests, but I always found it funny to come outside in the morning, when my family lived in the English country and see mounds of dirt that had sprung up overnight from moles tunneling away. The dog would go crazy trying to dig down into them.

Loved this. It’s important.

And the winner of headline of the week is…

Fun for travelers and global enthusiasts a like!

*Snort. Yeah, I can see it.

Humor, Linkstorm, Weekend, Work

Friday Links (Working Girl Edition)

“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

(via)
(via)

Well beloved minions! It’s my first Friday as a totally self employed woman and do you know – it kinda rocks. I’m still busy beyond belief, I’m still scrambling around, but the projects I’m working on are fantastic, the experience is already leaps and bounds ahead of where I was, and I’m learning all sorts of new programs, ticks, and skills.

The pay is small, the hours irregular, and the projects all completely unrelated. It’s bloody incredible! I should have gone for full time freelancing years ago! I’ve got a couple of clients that I’m doing virtual assisting for (one of them none other than incredible and incredibly prolific Caitlin Kelly!) doing everything from research, to editing, to press releases, to social media, and now on to professional networking and branding. It’s a brilliant apprenticeship! Once I get all my current projects well handled, I’ll start sending out more pitches of my own and see where I can go.

Here are you links, kittens. Even in the midst of this sea of change you know I’d never forget your need for a little light Friday reading. Let me know what you’re up to this weekend.

In case you haven’t seen it.

Librarians are awesome.

Busy as I am, I know of no one who’s this desperate. Although frankly who knows what our space in London will be like so maybe I need to look into it.

This brings back some mighty fun memories. King Mendenbar for me, please, and Edward Cullen can take a flying leap for all I care. (And with that I’ve lost a significant percentage of my audience…remember this is a safe “team” space, everyone!)

I admit it, I am somewhat conflicted about many Disney films for these very reasons.

Visions of the future from the past.

This made the rounds across media a couple of weeks ago, but I don’t think I shared it anywhere. And it very much needs to be shared.

I was a good kid who didn’t get pregnant, do drugs, or generally mess up. You’re welcome, siblings. (More importantly you’re also welcome, parents.)

Here’s a great article about the role that dance played in women’s liberation in the 1920s – possibly my favorite decade.

One of The Girls works at Colonial Williamsburg, which means I get archeological gossip before it hits the presses (the delights of historical nerdiness!) so I’ve been sitting on this one for about a week. Which is morbidly hilarious because it’s long been established in the courts of historical gossip, to say nothing of the historical record, to be true, but now they have proof, alas for those who have dismissed it as slur and slander all these years! Being an adopted Virginia girl, we learned about the Starving Time in school, but I suspect it’s often left out of other history books. Suffice it to say, looking back, I really do marvel that the US ever materialized, the odds against it at every turn were astronomical.

Humor, Work

Freedom!

The difference between a job and a career is the difference between forty and sixty hours a week.
~Robert Frost

A pictorial account of my day, thanks to an utterly fictitious account of William Wallace:

Leaving the office:

braveheart_freedom
Huzzah!

Getting home, turning on my computer to view my freelancing and personal task list, which has doubled:

wait
Wait…

The universe:

Condescending Robert the Bruce meme.
Condescending Wonka Robert the Bruce meme.

There’s no rest for the wicked, kittens! (Serious post forthcoming, but first I have stuff to do!)

Humor

So Close

“One more dawn. One more day. ONE DAY MORE!”
– Les Miserables (musical)

Up before six, at work before seven, the landlord never showed up to our appointment to check us out, the first solid food I had all day was at nearly 8pm, and I scribble this to you from a kitchen table as I work frantically away for some clients. Though I may throw in the towel soon, put on a movie and slowly collapse into a puddle as I should be folding laundry. Better yet I may shower and blow dry my hair. Tomorrow the chapter of my PD life comes to a close, and I’m ready. One day more!

tumblr_m2fuka7pjj1qdsr20o1_500
Actually, dawn would feel like sleeping in at this point.

 

Humor

Notes on Today

“When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.”
― Rodney Dangerfield

thrift-shop1The flat is all but empty, all we really lave left is some fragile things that we didn’t want to transport in a tightly packed car where they would be jostled to pieces.

All our furniture sold (some of it at the 11th hour!).

We still have to clean. The thought fills me with dread.

I’ve been bouncing back and forth between packing and working for some freelance clients and the vocabulary is starting to blur (“I have to send off more sofas for this assignment. I mean edits. Damn it! I mean emails!”).

I am bloody tired.

Discovered: we don’t have as much stuff as we thought we did, just mostly pesky little things. Another great purge is in order!

Typing this from a hard floor without furniture to sit on is not my favorite.

My in-laws are unbelievably great people – every last one of them.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ song “Thrift Shop” (language warning, just in case) has been our theme song for the entirety of this enterprise (particularly as we donated acres of stuff to the local one). And I literally just found $20 in my pocket. Universe for the win.

Humor, Linkstorm, Weekend

Friday Links (Severely Run Down Edition)

“We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.”
― David Mamet, Boston Marriage

stress-antistresskitThe good news: it’s not mono or strep throat. Yes, I got myself checked out this week because I’m still not over being sick. The bad news is that the doctor confirmed what I already knew, “There’s nothing really wrong except you’re badly in need of rest.” $35 copay for that advice. Blerg.

On the other hand, my dating approach to furniture sales is working! Sold my beloved exercise bike Harley yesterday, and someone is coming to check out the shelving unit we’ve used as a TV stand this afternoon. Tomorrow our mattress and boxspring will be hauled away. We hope. Please, universe, send our couches some suitors!

It’s also graduation day which means the population of people on campus (already in the multiple tens of thousands) has effectively doubled and everyone is getting in accidents, getting tickets, and getting in fistfights over parking spaces. The entire town is virtually shut down due to traffic and I haven’t actually been in my office since before one due to running errands. And I still have to pack up another car load of things for J. to haul to store away properly and get some freelance assignments done (why don’t people answer emails?!). As you can tell things are just a bit frantic over here so here are you links and let’s talk later, k thanks bye.

Fascinating.

Kind of a hilarious photo gallery. I find teenage determination to refuse to enjoy anything hysterically funny now, but I know I was just as bad a perpetrator as any of them.

As the lifelong human companion of a particularly valiant and devoted teddy bear (who incidentally linked up with me the day I was born and to this day sleeps on my bed and is transported in my carry-on luggage because I will not trust her to baggage claim – and regarding all of this I have no shame whatsoever) I heartily approve this Facebook post.

A very smart adult literacy campaign.

Ever wondered who makes the Queen’s headgear? Wonder no more.

Oops.

Semi-funny photo aside, it’s amazing to think about

Interesting article about confidence in general and women in particular (in response to that Dove ad that took over my Facebook page for a few days). Thoughts?

I am an unabashed Game of Thrones fan. Here’s a fun piece about creating the languages for the series – bet you didn’t know we’ve all be pronouncing Khaleesi wrong.

If ever I design my own house, I am definitely throwing in some hidden nooks and crannies.

Humor

A Watched Pot…

“Patience, he thought. So much of this was patience – waiting, and thinking and doing things right. So much of all this, so much of all living was patience and thinking.”
― Gary Paulsen, Hatchet

In selling our furniture, we’ve taken on a tried and true tactic last employed in the dear dead dating days gone by: being unavailable to make the phone ring when expecting calls. In extremis, actually leaving the house to prompt the cosmos to act.

The science behind it is sound, it got me many a dinner in my youth.

blog_inkblot_pot

Humor, University

I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major Theatre Geek

“Oh Frederic, can you not in the calm excellence of your wisdom reconcile it with your conscience to say something that will easy my father’s sorrow?”
“…What?”
“Can’t you cheer him up?”
– The Pirates of Penzance

Ah yeah, ladies, you want this.
Ah yeah, ladies, you want this.

Without doubt, one of the best things about working for a university with several renowned performing arts programs and groups, and the talent they manage to attract – is coupling all that with the sweet staff and faculty discount I get on tickets. I’ve seen at least one opera or musical and play every year I’ve lived here (The Magic Flute was painfully mediocre – although the witch trio was amazing, Die Fledermaus was one of my favorite comic performances ever, The Phantom of the Opera could have been mistaken for a Broadway or West End performance, Love’s Labour’s Lost – set in WWII France – was brilliant).

Today I bought my last tickets as a staff member: a summer performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance (the movie version of which starring Kevin Kline and so delightfully, purposefully camp was a childhood favorite). It felt bittersweet tucking my last discounted ticket envelope into my bag.

Then I got an email about next year’s lineup for touring performers. John Lithgow, Audra McDonald, and Joshua Bell. As well as a Middle Eastern group performing an adaptation of Hamlet in Farsi, a marionette troupe, and some really great looking Shakespeare.

Bittersweet to just bitter, alas!

…But then I think about how I can go to performances at The Globe and in the West End…and I’m mollified.

Humor

State of the C. Address (Just a brief one)

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.”
― Robert Burns

This week, I had determined, would be busy but orderly. Nothing would crop up last minute, work would behave, and things would move along at a slow but steady pace.

And the universe, how she laughed.

“C., you darling, silly little creature, you know that’s not how this is going to go down,” I imagine it said with parental fondness.

Stupid universe.

Oh, C.. Your continued faith in me, contrary to all evidence and experience, is so cute!
You can’t see, but it’s chuckling.

 

Home, Humor

Packing has commenced (and all that implies)

“A committee is a thing which takes a week to do what one good man can do in an hour.”
– Elbert Hubbard

I think that makes us a committee. My house looks like this:

Disaster zone.
Disaster zone.

And as I type this a strange man is attempting to free style rap outside my door in an extremely nasally voice. Less than a week, minions.